Reducing speed vs better law enforcement - which do people feel is better for reducing deaths on our roads?
Whilst 71% of metro adults polled at the end of October and early November felt that reducing the speed limit would be the best way to reduce the number of deaths on South Africa's roads, 81% felt that better law enforcement would be the best solution (people could give both options). Less than 8% gave a don't know response to either question, indicating that this is an issue that affects most people.
These results were released today by TNS South Africa, the country's leading marketing and social insights company, which conducted another in its series of studies (amongst 2000 metro adults) into attitudes to various social and political issues in late October and early November 2011. The study has an overall margin of error of less than 2.5%.
There are no notable differences by gender, age group or income but there are some differences by area. Whilst the need for better law enforcement is generally higher in most areas, it is reversed on the East Rand and in Pretoria but is particularly high in Soweto and in all the coastal cities.
|
|
|
|
Best to reduce the speed limit |
Best to have better law enforcement |
|
Gauteng |
|
|
73 |
76 |
|
|
Johannesburg and environs |
|
71 |
76 |
|
|
|
Johannesburg excl Soweto |
70 |
78 |
|
|
|
East Rand |
75 |
73 |
|
|
|
West Rand |
76 |
80 |
|
|
|
Soweto |
80 |
85 |
|
|
|
Vaal Triangle/South Rand |
48 |
68 |
|
|
Pretoria |
|
79 |
75 |
|
Cape Town |
|
|
73 |
87 |
|
Durban |
|
|
72 |
88 |
|
Eastern Cape |
|
|
61 |
88 |
|
|
Port Elizabeth |
|
61 |
90 |
|
|
East London |
|
61 |
86 |
|
Bloemfontein |
|
|
53 |
80 |
Those whose home language is English are more inclined to vote for better law enforcement over reducing the speed limit than other language groups.
Our take out
Whilst the need for better law enforcement is felt to be higher than the need to reduce speed limits to help reduce the number of deaths on South Africa's roads, the fact that both levels of response are so high suggests that this is seen to be a serious problem by most people.
It is clear that better law enforcement is seen as central to the problem in almost all areas, especially in Soweto and all the coastal cities.
Technical note
The study was conducted amongst 2 000 adults (1260 blacks, 385 whites, 240 coloureds and 115 Indians/Asians) in the seven major metropolitan areas: it has a margin of error of under 2.5% for the results found for the total sample. The study was conducted by TNS (Pty) Ltd as part of their ongoing research into current social and political issues and was funded by TNS South Africa.
Statement issued by Neil Higgs, Senior Advisor and Head of innovation, TNS South Africa, December 20 2011
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